Get to know the most famous dreams that changed the world. Who knows? You might have a dream that can do the same.

Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, changed the literary history after giving birth to the first science fiction novel. The novel was inspired by one of her vivid nightmares.

When she was just 18 years old, Shelley visited George Gordon Byron, a poet, in Switzerland. The two were stuck in a cold volcanic winter due to the eruption of Mount Tambora, which was known as Europe’s “year without summer”. Since they were stuck indoors and huddled around a fire, Byron suggested that they write a ghost story. Unfortunately, night after night, Mary Shelley failed to think of any suitable horror story.

One evening, while they were discussing the nature of life, Shelley suggested that maybe a corpse could be reanimated through galvanism. Later that night, as she slept, her imagination turned into a vivid dream. According to her, her dream was hideous and that it gave her a fright she could never forget.

When asked what her vision was about, she said: “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.”

Paul McCartney

In 1965, Paul McCartney, one-fourth of legendary British rock band The Beatles, composed the melody of one of his most notable songs – Yesterday. As soon as he woke up, he replicated the melody in his dream on his piano. As he replicated it, he asked his families and friends if they had ever heard it before, worrying that he may be just imitating the melody of other songs. After times of securing that it was an original melody, he collaborated with his bandmate, John Lennon, in fully writing the song. Lennon wrote the lyrics, while the melody is McCartney’s.

Albert Einstein

Did you know that the famous Albert Einstein dreamt of the concept of the speed of light? When he was young, Einstein dreamt that he was sledding down a steep mountain, his speed rising until he reached the speed of light. In his dreams, the stars changed their appearance in relation to his speed. When he woke up, he meditated on the idea and formulated the now famous scientific theories in mankind.

Frederick Banting

Frederick Banting, the discoverer of insulin injections, invented insulin as he was searching for a cure to diabetes – the reason for his mother’s death. In his dream, he had to surgically tie up (ligate) the pancreas of a diabetic dog.As he did, he discovered that there is an imbalance between sugar and insulin.

Don’t take your dreams for granted. For all you know, they can have the power to affect history, the arts, and science, and medicine.